ntopng Professional (Free Tier)

ntopng Professional (Free Tier) — Advanced Features with No-Cost Access General Information ntopng Professional (Free Tier) is the entry point into the professional edition of ntopng. It keeps the real-time visibility of the Community Edition but unlocks several advanced features such as traffic profiles, enhanced reporting, and integration with external identity systems. This makes it appealing for teams that have outgrown the limits of CE but are not yet ready for a full commercial license.

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ntopng Professional (Free Tier) — Advanced Features with No-Cost Access

General Information

ntopng Professional (Free Tier) is the entry point into the professional edition of ntopng. It keeps the real-time visibility of the Community Edition but unlocks several advanced features such as traffic profiles, enhanced reporting, and integration with external identity systems. This makes it appealing for teams that have outgrown the limits of CE but are not yet ready for a full commercial license.

How It Works

Like CE, it inspects packets or flows and classifies them with nDPI. The difference is in how the results can be consumed: Professional provides richer dashboards, configurable traffic profiles for policy checks, and extended reporting. Access control is improved by supporting LDAP or directory-based authentication. It remains a browser-based system, easy to deploy on Linux or BSD servers, with Redis as a backend and optional integration with external databases.

Functions

Feature Description
Enhanced reports Built-in graphical reports for auditing and management.
Traffic profiles Define and monitor categories of interest such as business vs. personal use.
LDAP integration Connects with enterprise directories for access control.
Dashboards Extended visualizations beyond the CE feature set.
Flow visibility Works with NetFlow/IPFIX exporters and live packet capture.
Upgrade path Serves as a step towards Enterprise with long-term analytics.

Installation Guide

The installation steps are identical to ntopng CE:
– Add the ntop repository and install ntopng with Redis.
– Start the service and access the web interface at `http://:3000`.
– Apply the Professional license key (or free tier activation) through the configuration file or the web UI.

Once activated, Professional features are unlocked and appear in the dashboards.

Everyday Use

Organizations commonly deploy the Free Tier to get scheduled reporting and traffic categorization without investing in the Enterprise line. It is practical for SMEs where management needs both technical and business-level views of network usage. Administrators often use traffic profiles to quickly separate legitimate business traffic from less critical flows, helping with policy enforcement.

Limitations

The Free Tier is restricted compared to paid Professional and Enterprise licenses. Retention of historical data is limited, and advanced features such as extended SNMP monitoring, ClickHouse flow storage, and full-scale alerting remain unavailable. For long-term analytics or compliance-driven environments, an upgrade is necessary.

Comparison

Tool Platforms Strengths Typical Use Case
ntopng CE Linux, BSD Free, real-time visibility Labs, small networks, troubleshooting
ntopng Pro (Free Tier) Linux, BSD Reports, traffic profiles, LDAP integration SMEs needing structured views and policy
ntopng Enterprise Linux, BSD Full analytics, SNMP, long-term flow storage Service providers, large infrastructures

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